


Double Sided Saber

by kharmachaos



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, BAMF Darth Maul, BAMF Padmé Amidala, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Darth Maul Centric, Darth Maul Lives, Darth Maul Needs a Hug, Darth Maul Redemption, Darth Vader Needs a Hug, Darth Vader Redemption, F/M, Feral Lives (Star Wars), Fix-It, Gen, Grey Jedi, I'll update tags as I go, I'm gonna save every clone i possibly can, I'm not tagging characters i only mention, M/M, Mace Windu Appreciation Day, Mace Windu Lives, Mandalorian Culture (Star Wars), Maul uses Mecha-Deru, Mecha-Deru, NO ROMANCE UNTIL OBI-WAN GROWS UP LORGE, OMG I FORGOT TO MENTION, Obi-Wan is the cutest padawan, Parental Plo Koon, Plo Koon Lives, Protective Plo Koon, Savage Opress Lives, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Talzin uses Mecha-Deru, Temporary Character Death, That's Not How The Force Works (Star Wars), Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, does maul's mental illness magically go away when he blasts to the past?, i'm not going to make this easy for our babs, lol no, mace windu does not die from going through a windu, me and my homies hate sheev palpatine, no really tell me what i need to do to fix this english garbaaage halp, or will i? meheheheh, references to mortis, slaps maul, that's giving u a big hint, then we getting wild, this boi can fit so much angst in him, this fic starts off gen with canon relationships, though i will add character tags as some characters pop up later, what the fack are tenses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:46:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27892528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kharmachaos/pseuds/kharmachaos
Summary: Maul thought his final revenge would culminate in his death. He was wrong. Instead, mysterious forces interfere and yeet him back into the past so that many, many wrongs can be righted. Unfortunately, he is not going to have an easy time at it.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Maul, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 58
Kudos: 182





	1. To Intervene

The creatures of the Tatooine desert called out in the night and the striking buzz of lightsabers sung through the air. Tilt up, left. Swing right, pivot the back foot, let go of the left handle and spin with the right hand. Move forward, conserve the momentum, and  _ don't make eye contact with Kenobi.  _ The night of Tatooine is warm and the stars shine brightly, but Maul cannot take any notice of it, because all of his focus was taken by a duel that meant death.

Flashes of blue danced across his vision as he pushed the attack. Maul did not know how long he could last if this fight turned into a fight of endurance. Kenobi had a habit of forcing an opponent to out exert themselves and striking when an opening inevitably appeared, and Maul was  _ dangerously exhausted.  _

It turns out, Maul pondered as he gasped into the warm, dry air, that wearing black and having metal legs that easily heated his innards was a quick way to get heatstroke. It was those same legs that had saved him as Maul had installed a cooling unit that worked on the last energy cells Maul had.

A slash to his left forced Maul out of his thoughts and he turned and slashed at his experienced opponent’s left side- guarded easily with a swivel of a handle. Kenobi was using the Ataru form, perhaps as a call to their first fight- A flash of deep blue eyes and tightly restrained passion, and Maul twisted right to cover his right side in response. Kenobi was no doubt using it as a misplaced homage to his previous Master, and Maul knew what had to be done, the counter to the next strike-

But Kenobi did not flow into the next natural strike. Maul moved forward, trades defense for a stunning offensive move, but Kenobi shifted backward, raised his lightsaber upwards like a club and whipped it downwards. 

…

Pain. Maul paused as Kenobi breathed, inches from his face. His sabers are bisected in front of him, above his chest where he knows he is mortally wounded. He could distantly smell the scent of burnt fabric, skin, and blood.

Kenobi had punctured his ribcage and cut the artery in between both his hearts.

Weakness swept over Maul and he dropped, his lightsabers switched off on instinct- and Kenobi caught him. Cradled him, like a kriffing tooka kit. For a moment, Maul thinks of a bird he had caught on Lotho Minor- a bloody blessing, a frail creature that he had dug his claws in and spread it's ribcage, just like how he knew he looked right now-

Maul broke his rule, his unspoken rule of  _ never looking Kenobi in the eyes,  _ and he found pools of water, salvation from the heat surrounding him. He gingerly raised a hand to his chest- heat seemed to radiate from his core, smoke currents curling around his hand. 

His vision is dimmed around the edges. His force is bleeding just like he is, and he knows that if he is to survive he must throw himself headlong into the Mad Dark once again. The Darkness swirls like the smoke around his chest, waiting for him to submit so that it could pounce and render him to his most basic parts. It prowled the edge of his mind for years, occasionally pressing against the barriers of green that gave him a place of calm. But now… Now, when he was held by Kenobi, and his blood was leaking from him in rivulets….

He can't. He just can't gather the rage he needs to live. 

_ Death is a relief. _

A memory sparked in the recesses of his mind, scrambling for what he had truly wanted, Hope--

"He is the Chosen One." Maul gasps, choked on blood and bile.

"Yes," Obi-Wan Kenobi breathed softly. Maul blinked long for a moment- He sees Savage, his arms crossed and his head down, glowing gold and red, accented by the twin suns. He sees a second zabrak, smaller, with patterns on his skin like the wave of a gentle sea behind him, his hand on Savage’s shoulder. He sees a light. A boy, interposed between the twin suns, green lightsaber held aloft in victory.

"He… will avenge us." Maul whispered, the last of his strength gone.

Maul wondered if there would be water where he goes, and the ichor spread across his eyes and dragged him under.

\----

Maul stood upon shifting sands. His eyes were closed- but he could feel the wisps of wind brushing the sands against his feet. There was a heavy feeling to the air- the feeling of a storm approaching on Coruscant. The air was fresh and clean.

He opened his eyes, and saw that he was on the edge of a cliff wide as he could see, silver sands racing off the sudden edge and wafting into particles of light. There was no sun in the sky, but he could see everything clearly. Beyond the cliff was a green and blue land, floating boulders covered with moss and vibrant plants, weightlessly drifting in the gentle wind. Water swirled in patterns underneath the rocks, forests of trees kissing the edges of the spiral streams, and if Maul concentrated, he could see animals, far away, flitting through the trees.

He stood. And breathed. There was a storm coming, he knew it in his bones.

He's not sure how long it took for the clouds to coalesce and the wind to turn into gusts. The storm came from ahead- perhaps, a distant ocean- and Maul watched, a passive observer on the sands, as the storm grew in power. The winds began to whip across the grasses, flicking them to and fro almost like currents of electricity.

The Storm felt malevolent. It felt tainted from it's purpose. It felt like it had eyes that were focused on  _ him _ .

But Maul was not afraid. He's not sure he could be afraid, anymore.

With a single stroke of a clock, the Storm struck, throwing the floating islands against the ground, ripping apart the plantlife by their roots and mulching them, dirtying the pure water. Animals cried out as there was no hiding from the storm. Maul watched dispassionately as their bodies flew through the air. 

The sands shifted with footsteps. Two presences settled at his sides- one so very, very bright, and the other, so very, very dark. 

"I made a mistake." The dark one says, softly. "I was... I felt… alone, and forgot who I used to be."

Maul does not startle, but for some odd reason, he can't turn his head. He can only look on at the Storm's destruction. 

"I made a mistake." The bright presence mirrored. "I forgot the source of our power, and chose an empty peace."

The storm began to end. The place he was in, wrecked beyond compare, faded into night. He saw the corpses of trees that gave a faint blue glow, fading quickly, but not because of the night. Animals- their forms indistinct- rotted and gave way to spirits, bleeding their pain into the force as they faded. The place before him, once so full of life and death, now was empty- missing something vital that Maul just couldn’t quite understand. He wondered- what could this have looked like had it not been destroyed? Perhaps it could have been… something beautiful.

From behind, Maul felt another presence form: larger, confusing. It felt like a colour that had no name.

"I made the greatest mistake of all." This presence said. "I stood back… and watched."

Maul found he could turn his head, but as he started to turn towards the dark presence, he felt two hands land on his back, and  _ push.  _ The sands shifted under his legs and he fell forward. As he fell, he saw the edges of the cliff appear like the reactor walls of Naboo, and he saw his legs: forms of light, metallic but shining with strength. 

Maul could not feel fear. Not even as he saw the cliffside disappear, not when he saw the silver sand turn into pieces of bleeding kyber, not when he saw the destruction of the ground up close and saw thousands upon thousands of broken helmets, not when the ground came so close he could smell the ashes of Mandalore and Dathomir-

\-----

Maul blinked. He held a saber- only his instincts and muscle memory trained over many years saved him from the deadly slash of the green lightsaber that vibrated across his brow. He pushed forward, brought his red saber- more mechanical, his first friend- around in a twist. The sabers met in a clash of sparks, and he could finally see his opponent-

_ Qui-gon Jinn. _

His pause costs him, and the Jedi tilted his blade handle towards his own neck, almost forcing Maul’s own blade to slide through his own shoulder. Maul pulled his frontal force back, pivoted on his left heel and spun, slashing his lower blade at the other’s knees. The Jedi hops upward, giving Maul the split second chance to look at his left.

Just as expected, a young Obi-Wan stood there, nervous and sweating, behind a laser shield. Maul has one second to decide- does he kill Qui-Gon Jinn, or not?

The older Jedi lended his momentum to an overhand strike, but Maul knows his next three moves. Maul raised his saber to defend. The Jedi starts to ease up to duck and disengage. Maul overextended, pushed the Jedi’s saber up and imbalanced him, then followed with a quick strike to the forehead, stunning the Jedi for the moment he needed to flow into…

A roundhouse kick beneath the chin, knocking the Jedi Master out instantly. The green lightsaber rolled out of his hands and he collapsed like a sheet of fabric, and the boy behind the shield gasps- but does not scream. He knew his master is not dead.  _ Yet. _

Maul turned to the trapped boy, considering him- he is young, inexperienced. Only now does he look at the current Sith with a bit of fear in his eyes. Maul walked silently, with a often-missed catlike grace, to stand over Qui-Gon, one of his blades held over his throat in a silent warning. The Padawan stills, getting the message.

“Young Padawan. I have a message for you to give to your… precious Jedi Masters. If I, an Apprentice, could take one of your own, you are not prepared to face the darkness that will come,” Maul states softly. Obi-Wan tilted his head down slightly and swallowed, but his gaze does not stray from Maul’s own. He is so, so very nervous, and for a second Maul is tempted to steal the Padawan away on his ship. But he focuses and swipes the thought away with force- No.

_ At least, not yet. _

Belatedly, Maul realized his own anger is muted, not a raging inferno it had been at this time, driven by  ~~abuse~~ intense training and strikes of Sith Lightning. It must be odd, to see his behavior suddenly change from menacing fury, to the restrained undertow of his older years.

“Why…” Maul stared intently as the Padawan spoke up. “Why did you st-” Maul flashed his hand upwards, suddenly remembering something and cutting off the Padawan. He reached up to his ear and unhooked the micro-communicator. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. That communicator caught the warning he just freely gave, something he was specifically ordered  _ not  _ to give while on this assassination mission. No hints of his identity or plans, just the death of the Jedi Master and the Padawan. He tosses it up into the air, preparing to destroy it with a slash of his saber, and promptly felt a weight tackle him forward into the pit.

Swivel, turn- drag his saber against the wall to slow himself enough to land on one of the baubles on the pit’s walls. He looked up to see Qui-Gon, saber held, narrowed eyes focused down at him from the top of the pit. He heard little  _ tap-taps  _ as Obi-Wan ran up to peer downward also, his blue eyes shining in determination and his lips smirking  _ just so. _

“Need a lift?” the Padawan chirps, the same moment that red lights started to flash around them. Maul felt his eyes widen as he looked at his saber, currently slowly burning a hole through a  _ coolant core _ . For the  _ Naboo Plasma Refinery _ . They were about to get a lot of action, very very soon.

The Jedi Master pulled himself and his Padawan back as Maul flipped himself upward, propelled with the force and holding his saber perpendicularly to his side just in case- but he landed unmolested. He glances to the Jedi Master who is obviously ready for more of a fight, and the Padawan that has partially lowered his guard. Stupid, but not something Maul was going to teach a lesson on right now.

“Those laser barriers are on a five minute timer. We have just started the alarms, which means that timer has reduced to two-  _ run! _ ” Maul growls out as he starts to run towards the small passageway. Jinn and Obi-Wan immediately follow- Maul swelled vigour to his legs and his speed increased until he was practically flying across the passageway. He felt a cooling wave of power behind him- the Jedi are doing the same. But behind them, he heard a deep surge as the first barrier activates.

He knew one thing. _ The Jedi won’t be fast enough.  _

Maul slows. The second barrier activates. A sharp inhale from behind. The Padawan is behind the master, and will be caught by the next barrier. 

Maul lifts his hands, and  _ h o l d s. _

The barrier about to cut the Padawan in half screeches mechanically as it is stopped- all of the barriers that blocked their path along with it. The radioactive power behind it builds into an arching crescendo, igniting maul on fire from within.

“GO!” Maul roars, hearing the Padawan start to pause. The Older Jedi passed him, crossed the last of the barriers, and the Padawan followed. Maul’s limbs burned as he released his hold. The switches spring forward, and a tenacious stream of energy bursts forth, blinding Maul for a few moments and deafens him with the scream of suddenly released energy.

For another moment, Maul can’t breath. But the lasers slow, and pain comes forth- he was not in the direct path of the lasers, but the backflow of energy has badly burned his face and clothing. They are solid now, steady, and they will not turn back off until the authorities come and repair the coolant cell. Maul collapsed to his knees. His sight is blurred- he hoped the damage is not permanent.

“Why did you…” Jinn speaks for the first time, but obviously can’t find the words to continue. To him, Maul has suddenly adopted a new fighting style, personality, and motivation- it makes sense that he would be confused. Maul barked out a raspy laugh. Perhaps the Jedi might listen to a further warning.

“There are more things at work here that you think. I was sent here to kill you both, but I have disobeyed my Master.” At the audible shifting in confusion of the blurry baby-faced Padawan, Maul huffs and continued with his last hint. “Do not, under any circumstances, let Senator Palpatine become Supreme Chancellor.” A sharp intake of breath from the older Jedi. He knew what Maul meant.

Maul shifts back from the crackling wall and folds his legs beneath him- the subservient, and eventually painful, meditation form. He was going to need every mote of anger and pain he had left for the battles to come. 

The Jedi footstep’s echo slightly as they walk away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY SO the next chapter will take a lil longer to post than what I hope will be the usual for this story bc I need to rewatch the prequel trilogy to get my bearings again and I'm beeesy.  
> Fun fact: wookiepedia says naboo laser gates are on a five minute timer, but in the movie those feckers close anywhere from 15-30 seconds. Another fun fact: Since Maul was supposed to die in the movie originally, the fight was originally fought over a pit with as a reactor core. They retconned that so that there was "water" at the bottom, so im further retconning it and saying it was a coolant core instead. Makes a lot more sense bc, ya know, radiation.  
> Obi and Qui are going to be a lot more talkative later on when I get a better handle on their characters :.>  
> Plz comment luvs, criticism gleefully accepted, i need food of words. im hungy


	2. To Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dear Sweet Jesus, this one was a doozy. It's completely different than what I originally planned, (and took 2 months longer than I expected. I rewrote this THREE TIMES.) so I hope you enjoy the SNAK!

Maul shifted his legs to splay aside his hips. Back and forth, he has moved them from concentrating his weight on their nerves- their living nerves!- underneath him, to stretching his muscles sharply. 

He did not want them to go numb, but the pain was vivid and grounding. The anticipation roiled within him, the sense of danger on the edge of his awareness. He had heard distant explosions and shakes for the first 20 minutes, but it has gone silent about him.

If he remembered correctly, the Jedi and Princess Amidala were successful in retaking Naboo- and had created a stronger political relationship with the Gungans. He was not exactly sure when Palpatine was elected- if his warning was too late to Master Jinn, or if it was ignored, then Maul would be forced to depose the chancellor who already had a supportive political base behind him. Assassination, even at this point in skill…

_ Slashes too quick for him to breathe. Savage, at his back. His Master, at his front, knocking back every strike like it was child’s play- batting away his Force like he was an amusing student. And he was  _ **_laughing._ ** _ His darkness was the Abyss to his puddle, the deepest coldest reaches of space where even a hyperdrive cannot pull you out of a Black Hole’s grip. Maul remembers the earliest warning written as his blades flash inconsequentially against his Master’s guard- _

_ In Space, No One Can Hear You S c r e a m. _

Maul gasped for breath, his legs sparking- no, going numb underneath him. The blurry shield in front of him was starting to shimmer, and if Maul squinted slightly he could see faces shifting in and out of the energy, green light melding into the face of his Mother…

Maul closed his eyes and focused. He was in the past. He did not have his criminal empire, his Shadow Collective, to rally power with. He takes another shuddering breath and the lasers emit sparks, a few winking out against his crispy tunics. He did not have His Mandalorians.  ~~ Maul had done nothing but trade their loyalty for betrayal after all ~~ ~~.~~ He was alone.

But perhaps… not for long. Dathomir was whole, in a way he had never seen. Savage was  _ alive.  _ His second brother was also alive- the one that Maul does not even know the name of. He had only been mentioned in passing, with Savage turning his head to the side, never showing his facial expression to Maul as he spoke of a Brother he had Betrayed. Maul had never told him that he had seen the tears in the reflection of the dark, cold metal of the ship’s hull.

… Mandalore also remained. He was… unsure at the exact moment in history the planet was involved in, but he did know that the battle of Naboo was near the end of the Mandalorian Civil War. They might still be involved in skirmishes, in fact. The matter remains that he has priorities, and collecting his brothers from Dathomir before it became the  _ Wastes  _ of Dathomir was imperative.

He took another deep breath and refocused on his legs- pulls his toes up underneath and rolls himself to a standing position. He reaches out his senses, grasping for any living or force users in the area. Close by, he can sense two approaching force users, not bothering to hide their light. Both Jedi had survived, then. 

He was quite sure that when they came, he would be taken into custody. While he technically did not commit any crimes under Naboo law as physical assault was either by physical weapon or blaster fire, they could hold him indefinitely under suspicion and the possible foreign relations laws under the Jedi Order. They could certainly get him arrested under attempted terrorism as well.

Taking a quick stock of his body, he still felt crispy as roast Shatual and his face was raw from the super-heated energy. His eyes were watering, now, and the pain was sharp- he drew the pain to the forefront of his awareness, submerging his fingers into it and drawing strength out like webbing, wrapping it around his arms and legs and strewing it outward to augment his senses. It purred against him, it’s stirring wakefulness feeling like the static before a storm.

He closed his eyes, and waited. He didn't need his eyesight to  _ bargain _ .

\------

The Senior Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi had to move quickly to keep up with his Master’s stupidly long legs. The tower of a man was moving smoothly forward, ever-so determined, and he was  _ willfully ignoring  _ the fact that he had been fooled by the Queen’s duplicity just as Obi-Wan had been. 

That had been the most awkward conversation Obi-Wan had encountered in quite a while, excluding the bombastic negotiation tactics that  _ The Maverick Duo _ (as named by Master Windu) had acted on over the latter years of his senior padawan-ship. It had, quite frankly,  _ filled him with glee.  _ And if Master Qui-Gon gave him a quelling look in response to his projected glee, well. He couldn’t prove it.

Otherwise, the rest of this mission had gone surprisingly well. The tricky Queen Amidala had so masterfully outplayed Nute Gunray it was laughable, and there had been no losses in either raiding party due to each having their own defensive Jedi to accompany them. And, Obi-Wan thought triumphantly, he didn’t have to talk to Binks any more, perhaps ever again! Even the Gungans had been led to a decisive victory, which was decidedly odd considering how many separatist droid tanks had been taken down. The only way they could have done that is remarkable aim with their “Boomas”... something that wasn’t possible with their inaccurate Catapults…

He was torn from his thoughts and nearly crashed into a pillar when Master Qui-Gon grabbed his arm and pulled him into a windowed alcove. He blinked and craned his head upwards at his kriffing-tall Master. Qui-Gon takes a deep breath.

“No flirting with this one, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon starts and Obi-Wan chokes and then bursts out into laughter.

\------

Maul feels that the entourage around the two Jedi is a little underwhelming. There are only 10 individuals- 6 Nabooan Elite Guards, two toting shock-restraints and four carrying military CR-2 blasters. Two Jedi, their hands so deep in their robes Maul could cut their hands off twice over.  _ Insulting.  _ Maul was more scared of the multi-tool carrying technicians that were  _ bleeding  _ irritation in the force.

Their footsteps echo harshly and the Jedi’s robes swish gently as they stop before him and the energy barriers. The technicians start work immediately- taking apart the maintenance panels on the sides with a frankly intimidating efficiency. They would have made great Sith, Maul muses as he rises, staring the Jedi Master down. They are both just close enough to be clear.

He suddenly grins with all his teeth, rewarded with a slight startle from the Jedi.

“Have you managed to turn the security measures back on?” Maul queries smoothly and the Jedi simply raise their eyebrows. One of the guards steps forward and points their blaster at him.

“Yes, so everything you say or do is being recorded and saved. No misbehavior or a lick of disobedience from you, Terrorist.” The Guard confidently states. Maul chuckles and raises up his hands in an easy surrender.

“Please, no need to be so aggressive. We just need to  _ talk over our differences  _ somewhere no-one can hear a little spat,” he says, hoping that the Jedi can understand the LothHam-fisted clue. Judging by their spike of interest in the force, they do. Obi-Wan steps closer, his facial features becoming more clear through Maul’s blurry vision and the energy shield.

Sithspit, Maul had forgotten how boyish he looked at this age. He looked like he belonged in front of a holodrama and wrapped up in a soft blanket, not on the battlefield. Even Lady Tano looked like she would bite straight through a marrow bone at 20, and Obi-Wan was, what, 25?  _ Humans.  _ The baby-faced man dimples at him, relaxed, as if they had not been in a fight to the (presumed) death an hour before.

A  _ thunk _ echoes through the room as one of the technicians just slams a wrench against an interior component and the energy fields power down. The guards move forward as if they are approaching a wild Gundark, but Maul just offers his wrists for the Shock-Cuffs. Might as well expedite things. He keeps his body language relaxed and easy as they pat him down for weapons and confiscate his ‘Saber and a small blaster, and some other small fare. They miss a few of his knives, hah.

Completing their simple pat-down, he is walked down the hallway, Victory cries and celebrant murmurings getting louder as they near the center palace courtyards.

Glancing to his right earns him a sharply-appraising look from the Jedi Master. Maul hitches an eyebrow at him, and the Master just raises a single brow in return. Maul huffs, then turns his head to Kenobi on his left, who takes it as the perfect opportunity for small talk.

“Theed is known for their luxurious resorts. We even have a great room available for you right now. They even offer teeth cleaning products, free of charge,” Kenobi states evenly, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes, and Maul mock-grimaces.

“I would expect nothing less than the best dental coverage. Dathomiri were just added to the Sapient Civil Rights Registry, were they not?” He tests, and Kenobi quickly aborts an eyebrow raise at the easily-provided information. Offering up little tidbits of seemingly-pertinent information is a great way to show one was willing to negotiate, and he needed to get a private room as soon as possible.

The towering Master Jedi speaks up, staring serenely ahead. “Yes, they were. I’m sure that our resident Zabrak Jedi were ecstatic to hear about this progression in galactic rights,” he states, then tilts his head towards him inquisitively. Maul understands the unsaid:  _ the Jedi can get you out of your situation if you wish it.  _ Unfortunately for the Master, Maul will never join the  _ Jedi.  _ ~~ He still remembers the taste of the ash in his mouth. ~~

A movement out of the corner of his eyes, and Maul moves instinctively to block the blow from Kenobi’s side- and finds his arms up, half crouched with 3 blasters to his skull and two wary Jedi holding their sabers. Maul blinks while scanning as much as he can. Where was…? He thought that he had seen a shadow….  _ Oh. _

He clears his throat, and very slowly straightens. The blasters are still at his head, and he can feel cold sweat at the back of his neck as the adrenaline simmers in his system.

“...Apologies. I may… need some bacta for my vision.” Both Jedi stare him down, ready on the balls of their feet for any moves on his part. Maul curses himself, as he has lost his chance to pretend weakness at the thought of joining the Jedi Order. A guard prods at his back, and they resume their walk, their footsteps echoing through the dusty hallways of Theed.

\------

When they reach the clean stone prison block, the Jedi pull themselves into a security office. Presumably, to take a holocall from the Jedi Temple. Maul waits patiently, but he decides to test the mettle of the guards. Humans tend to always be moving, and their eyes are lent to detecting movement first and shape second. Zabraks are the reverse.

So Maul stills himself and stops breathing. To the humans, he has suddenly become perfectly still. The guard on his immediate left notices immediately, and tenses. The guards further to his left haven't noticed. The guards on his right are antsy. Maul can't see the guards behind him, but he can hear them shifting from foot to foot. Their unease makes for a good meditation of the Dark, and Maul strokes it’s flicker into a flame.

The seconds tick on. One minute. Two. Three...

The pair of Jedi walk out to see a few guards aiming their blasters at an unapologetic Zabrak who has a slightly manic grin. They glance at each other, communicating silently. With a nod to the guards, all of them continue on their way. They pass by a checkpoint of sorts, a barred room with a simple table in the center and a few scanners hung on the walls.

Kenobi grins at Maul, and unlocks the Shock-Cuffs. “Now for the fun part,” he chirps, and gestures to Maul’s layered robes and Obi. “Strip.”

Maul raises his eyebrows. Seems Kenobi still had a penchant for flirting with his enemies. Well, there was only one counter for that. He makes eye contact, goes half-lidded, affecting a slight smirk. The Padawan falters. Maul smoothly rolls his obi off of his waist, curling it and gently putting it on the table. He reaches for his shoulders and caresses the robes off, revealing each toned muscle and tattoo's arch slowly. 

He turns toward the table, coy, and rolls his shoulder blades, letting the robe fall gently to the tips of his fingers. Twisting to the side, the robes curls into itself and flutters to his front, where he folds it in a quick flash of movement. Pausing, just a moment, he hears a shuffle behind him.

Then he folds himself, curling over lasciviously, his right arm reaching to his left boot and curling down his ankle as his left unlatches it. He curves, unlatching the other, then stretches his limbs upwards, oh so blasé. Another shuffling. 

He toes out of his boots, tilting his leg just so- his claws gently catch as he burrows them into the crease of his glove, sliding them off with a sibilant sound in the quiet room. The other slides off just as softly as the first.

Turning now would give away his game. So he stands still for another moment, his back facing Kenobi, blustering in the force. He allows himself a smirk- and unlatches his pants, letting it flutter to the ground. He steps out of them like he's emerging from a pool of steaming water, clad only in his blacks.

Finally, _finally,_ he turns, and sees that Kenobi is flaming red, all the way from the tips of his ears to the base of his neck.

A guard clears their throat, then steps forward briskly, bringing their own scanning instrument. They run it over his body quickly, but Maul is not watching: instead, he is watching Obi-Wan, who is standing there, scanner hanging in his hands, absolutely absorbed by the tattoos that whorl over his body. 

Maul looks appraisingly at the Master Jedi, who is calm and neutral in the force- except. There. The faintest sense of amusement. Noticing his attention, the older Jedi reached out to hold the shoulder of Kenobi and gently guided him out the door.

"Finally met your match, Padawan?" The Jedi Master states just as they close the door. Kenobi's resulting squeak is muffled.

After the very brisk scan by the stone-faced guards, and the removal of the rest of his hidden knives, they allow him to put on his first layer and then recuff him. Maul doesn't mind the cuffs, but it would be a lie to say he wasn't amused by one of the guard's slight limp as they walk deeper into the prison.

The cell they led him to, in the darker, deeper undercarriage of the palace cell block, is quite luxurious. There is a padded cot with a thick blanket, there is a corner-refresher that has a thin privacy barrier (Ridiculous. No respect for the use of humiliation as a coercion tactic), and the sink even has two temperature dials. The stonework is old but sturdy, and the ancient bars and door are augmented by an energy field. The energy field is not located immediately forward of the bars, however, adding an airlock of sorts before any of the poor guards must contend with any prisoners contained within.

A good security detail, to the inexperienced and naïve.

The guards shove him forward into the cell, turn the barrier back on- and then  _ leave him completely alone _ . Absolute amateurs, or a well-oiled trap. They even let him keep his shock-cuffs on: it's much too bad that Maul is experienced with this model. And electricity in general. He's surprised they don't have large air vents leading to the upper levels from outside his cell….

Maul pauses. Stalks over to the bars. Squints, then chuckles silently to himself when he sees no obnoxiously large air vents. That kind of escape scenario only happens in Holomovies.

Normally, he would wait to escape until after he had acquired the information or the target he was sent for  ~~no, not sent for, out of his own free will~~ , however.… He needed to get medical treatment for his eyes. If he did not get treatment soon, they could be permanently damaged.

_ “You mean… My Apprentice?” A dash forward. A single slash to the unknowing opponent. It was the way of the Banite Sith, Maul thinks ironically, as Kanan Jarrus screams as his eyes burn. One Apprentice also meant One Master. However, he respected Jarrus- he was a fine opponent even if his heart was too soft to teach Ezra the lessons he needed to survive. The way of Maul… was to keep a rival alive, but disabled. And perhaps Ezra activating the superweapon could finally, finally, give Maul the chance he needed to defeat Sidious after all. _

He sits on the blanket. He tears off a strip, making it look like a nervous gesture for the cameras, then realizes that he doesn’t care about the camera feed. Reviewing his memory for the path to the outer courtyards, he acknowledges to himself that he had a difficult escape ahead of himself.  His ~~Master~~ Sidious has no doubt heard the last part of the conversation with the Jedi before he had abandoned the communicator, so to use the Force too grandly would beacon his position to  ~~ Master ~~ Sidious. Another tear, another strip. Repeat cleanly, efficiently.

_ You may be able to hide temporarily, Maul. But those experienced in the Dark see well in it. Disobey and I will find you. _

… Maul gripped his arm tightly, re-wrapping himself in his cloak of darkness. The tearing of fabric echoes through the cell halls as he tears strip after strip, knotting simple but strong loops into each, forming nooses. Another limitation, he muses: he cannot risk killing any of the Guards, not if he ever wished to have positive relations with the Jedi past this point.  _ Much too soft hearted.  _

Pattering softly to the sink, he notes it’s model before crawling underneath, prodding at… there… just the smallest bit of Force… a minuscule snap and a pull, and he has a small metal rod in his hands. Blunt and not useful for stabbing anything except the softest of human flesh, but that wasn’t what he wanted it for. It thwips gently against his thigh as he thinks.

The bars. They were obviously made for the average human size, but Maul was a smaller Zabrak- shorter and thinner in the ribcage. Even then, however… Maul sighs out as he approaches the bars.

Even then, this will hurt.  _ All the better for it. _

He places the metal rod on the floor, quietly. Breathing out, he presses himself to the bars tightly. Pressure builds up as he forces himself forward. His legs are braced, and he forces, forces, _F u r t h e r_ …

A quiet Pop. A Morsel of Agony. His ribs are cracked, and he is through. Taking a breath hurts, but the electricity within him delights in it.

The Dark is awake around him now, attentive, no longer slithering around his limbs like a deadly blanket. It takes interest in his ribs, and rubs against it, as if  _ it _ could break through and curl itself into his ribcage and devour his hearts.

Embracing the pain, he breathes-

_ I Am Pain _ __

-and pulls the Dark away from it’s interest and back to his limbs. It obeys, like a strill long aware of it’s master. The sensation is similar to stroking fingers through deep fur, and Maul allows himself a moment of fondness for the old friend.

Maul tenses his fingers and curls them into tight fists. Time to take care of the Cuffs. Crouching closely to the energized boundary, he leans one side of the cuffs to the stonework ground, then tilts the other forward- and with a thunderous crackle, electricity courses through the cuffs, overwhelming the electrical components within and flows to the ground that he has provided. The only price is wrists burnt with searing metal.

_ The path of least resistance.  _

The weakened cuffs crunch and separate as Maul cracks them against the bars. Now freed, he reaches for the thin metal bar and crouches, preparing himself.

One big design flaw behind a barrier that is simply plasmified electricity is that it requires a flow of power- and a lot of it. Another flaw is that it still acts like electricity- flowing through a contact and towards a ground. At that point the electrical output is coursing through the individual stupid enough to tackle the barrier, so normally, these flaws would not matter. But Maul was experienced in the art of escape. He has two seconds.

He crouches, then places the rod at the ground away from him. He lets go. The rod makes contact with the barrier, immediately lighting up with the force of lightning, forced to stay upwards. The discharge continues- stops, the barrier flickers-

He leaps forward in the narrow window of time the barrier needs to gather enough power to regenerate it’s field.

He stands, victorious, in an empty hallway. The silent alarms will begin soon, if they had not already. Curling his fists around a few nooses, he breaks into a run, his feet nearly silent against the patchwork stone. The pebbles and grout digging into his feet only make him faster, until he practically flies. One last thought infiltrates, startling him into a manic chuckle.  _ Kenobi lied about the oral cleaning products. _

\------

Maul has no difficulty dispatching the guards he meets along the way. They march in perfect lines, harried, expecting to dispatch  _ him  _ with the threat of raised blasters. Maul flits to them, dancing between their legs and blocking himself from being shot with their own red-Armourweaved bodies. His fabric nooses grab limbs and firearms as he passes, disarming and confusing as he tears through their pithy lines.

Tackling one, he throws the guard at another. Before they hit the ground he sweeps out the legs of a third and flashes out with a noose, pulling it and the guard upward.  A  _ ghk  _ echoes amongst uselessly absorbed blaster fire. 

“Alive, just a little breathless,” Maul comments as he grabs this guard’s blaster and then throws them at the most trigger-happy individual.

He rolls forward, shots impacting the ground behind him in a dusty barrage. One shot with his blaster at the knee takes a guard down. He lurches forward, dodging another barrage, and takes another shot- this time, the impact of the shot blasting the guard’s knee backwards with a  _ crunch _ .

Shot, dodge, shot. Repeat for main mass, designated non-deadly shots due to thick Armour-weave….

_ Kilindi huffs. “One shot, one kill-” _

The blaster is shot out of his hands. He reaches out with the Force, just a touch, and it grabs the blaster and flings it into the last remaining guard’s forehead.

Maul puffs out air in the smoke-scented hall, surrounded by the still breathing bodies of sentients who were a... much more force-null attack force than he expected.

This was a trap, but Maul just wasn’t aware where it would snap closed. And there was nothing more he could do than continue.

_ He prays to everything and anything that may listen, that it is not  _ ~~_ Master _ ~~ _ Sidious that awaits him. _

\------

He does not encounter any more guards as he continues. Taking it as a warning from the Force, he drapes himself in the Dark and dashes from recess to recess, from column to ornamental column. He has made it to the courtyard where- if his memory serves him correctly- where he parked his cloaked Sith Infiltrator, the  _ Scimitar.  _

Celebrations were going on, and there were Civilians milling about- party goers, dressed hastily in fluttering ribbons and fancy dresses. Sentients of many kinds scuttled about, carrying boxes of materials, foods, and decorations. Guards stood at common vantage points, checking and letting the sentients through. Merry making was clearly happening now, but there seemed to be preparations for a larger celebration. To Maul’s eyes, they were blobs of colour and shimmering reflections of light and lace.

At least the Force would help him detect where the guards’ attention rested. Prowling forward, ducking behind boxes and moving between harried civilians, Maul acquires a celebrant’s party hat and dodges his way towards the furthest corner of the massive courtyard. 

_ He is particularly glad he does not smell of spilled blood right now. _

The stones are slightly distressed where his ship rests. It is quieter here, and there are piles of boxes interspersed between him and the closest guard. It will have to be enough. He ducks, feels out- and there, the airlock of his ship. Operating more on muscle memory, he strokes the underbelly of the ship until he gets to the keypad, placing his thumb to be read.

A near-silent hiss. Mechanical ticks and a slide, purposefully engineered for stealth. The ship remains cloaked, but the grass to his left is disturbed, and Maul hops onto the ramp, seemingly walking on air until he taps the button to close the airlock and he disappears within.

Feeling safety in the Force for the first time since his capture, he stalks towards the lift. 

And nearly jumps out of his skin when he spots the short, green force gremlin  _ Jedi Grandmaster Yoda  _ perched on his sleeping cot.

He stares. Yoda smiles, somehow both gentle and smug.

"Took you long enough to escape, hmmm? Visit you must, to the Jedi Temple for a chat,” Yoda purrs and Maul feels his stomach drop to his toes. Banging echoes from the maintenance crawlspace from the direction of the cargo hold.

“Mother _ fucking  _ droids, I know your model and make, you have no weapons, you pieces of _swilloshit_ , ow!” A few repetitive thunks. “ _ You stop that. No!”  _ Another thunk, and the maintenance door opens to reveal a flustered Jedi Master Mace Windu, precariously holding three of Maul’s DRK-1 droids. Maul is quite sure he can’t even feel his toes anymore.

“Pleased we will be to talk about the Force over my favorite stew," says Yoda as he takes the twitching droids and wraps them in a blanket. Master Windu grimaces slightly.

“And, to give you the proper medical care for those eyes of yours,” Jedi Master Windu continues sternly, as if he was not exhibiting the dirty mouth of a smuggler a few seconds earlier. Yoda lifts a hand and snaps.

Maul shifts on his feet as a near-silent hiss starts behind him. Master Windu pins him still with a harsh  _ Look _ . Maul doesn’t turn, but he feels the presence of Padawan Kenobi, breathing heavily, run up the ramp.

“Sorry I am late, Masters! Had to make sure our littlest cargo was secured with Master Qui-Gon. I take it we are ready to go?” Kenobi rushes through, then  _ flumps  _ himself into a seat beside him. Maul chances a glance at the Padawan. He is  _ covered  _ with glitter.

“Nice hat,” Obi-Wan grins. “It complements your complexion.” Master Windu sighs, and Grandmaster Yoda’s grin grows even more impossibly smug. Maul resigns himself to his fate, knowing he is outmatched, and settles into a seat as Master Windu takes to the Cockpit.

\------

Chancellor Palpatine, freshly elected, descended upon Naboo in a convoy of ships. Officially, his reasoning was to partake in the Grand Parade and celebrations resulting from the freeing of his home planet. Outwardly, he smiled and freely offered jubilance to the Blue Guard and the Senators accompanying him. 

Inwardly, However... his Rage  _ roiled. _

When he queried as to the fate of that beast…  _ forgive him, Captain Panaka, but the security issue presented by the “rogue Zabrak Jedi _ ” … and was told that Maul had escaped a cell with no alarms triggered….

Darth Sidious's fist clenched underneath his robes.

\------

Meanwhile, in the atmosphere over Theed, a cloaked Sith Infiltrator breaches Hyperspace, heading towards Coruscant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Okay so Maul you need to escape Theed this chapter, you need to be resourceful in front of your obsession Obi-Wan but you must be in CHARACTER-  
> Maul: okay so i strip tease in a prison cell  
> Me: MAUL NO.
> 
> dhtfxjdreCTDHDTH. Also did the Jedi just play the feck out of Maul and narrowly avoid a confrontation with good ol palps? Yeh. How did Yoda manage to get into the Sith Infiltrator without triggering it's security protocols? Studied the art of slicing to be hip with the Younglings, Yoda has. ( I have a funny mental image of Yoda serenely hacking into a console while Mace deflects lasers. Maybe I'll add a sketch of that to this eventually) oh, and #LetMaceSayFuck
> 
> Maul looks great in his [Fancy Hat](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/80/97/4d80978d8777698575627f3f5328d81e.jpg)
> 
> Please leave comment if happ with snak! Actually if you have writing advice I totes appreciate that too. Am I being too extra (tm)? Do I need more description or action? Does anyone feel out of character? YALL ARE MY ONLY HOPE GETKRJRYDHD


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